Aleksandr Lukashenko

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New York, December 23, 2014--The Belarusian parliament adopted amendments to a restrictive media law last week, and President Aleksandr Lukashenko signed them on December 20, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the broad and vaguely worded provisions of the law, which extend restrictions on the traditional press to the online media. The amendments will be implemented on January 1.

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Thursday's court ruling in the western Grodno region of
Belarus is not befitting a modern European country, where servants of justice--prosecutors
and judges--are expected to ensure protection for press freedom and human rights.
Instead, it is reminiscent of medieval Europe, where dissent was declared
heresy and ordered destroyed.

The Oshmyansky District Court ruled that the 2011 edition of the Belarus Press Photo album contained extremist materials that "deliberately contort" social, economic, and political life in the country. Belarus Press Photo is an independent press photography contest that aims to support, promote, and develop local photojournalism, according to its mission statement.

In an unexpected development reported
in the press today, Belarusian authorities temporarily lifted a travel ban
on Irina Khalip, prominent
journalist and reporter for the Moscow-based independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. The restriction, which
includes a weekly check-in with district police and a requirement to spend
every night in her Minsk apartment, was part of a suspended two-year prison
sentence handed
to Khalip in May 2011 on fabricated charges of mass disorder in connection to
her reporting on presidential elections.

Is Irina Khalip, the prominent Belarusian journalist, free
to travel? President Aleksandr Lukashenko, whose government prosecuted her on
bogus charges of creating mass disorder, says that she is. That Khalip has not,
the president said, shows that she would prefer to be known as a "victim of the
regime." Of course, this all seems strange considering that Khalip's sentence
requires her to be home by 10 p.m. daily.

Approximately 30 journalists are targeted and murdered every
year, and on average, in only three of these crimes are the killers ever brought
to justice. Other attacks on
freedom of expression occur daily: bloggers are threatened, photographers
beaten, writers kidnapped. And in those instances, justice is even more rare.
Today, the Committee to Protect Journalists joins freedom of expression
advocates worldwide in a 23-day campaign
to dismantle one case at a time a culture of impunity
that allows perpetrators to gag journalists, bloggers, photographers and
writers, while keeping the rest of us uninformed.

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New York, July 2, 2012--Andrzej Poczobut, the prominent Grodno-based
correspondent for the largest Polish daily Gazeta
Wyborcza, was formally indicted Saturday on criminal charges of libeling President
Aleksandr Lukashenko through a series of articles critical of administration
policies.

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New
York, June 21, 2012--Authorities in Belarus must drop the charges against a prominent
journalist arrested today for libel against the president, and immediately release
him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Andrzej Poczobut has been
targeted in the past for his critical writing, CPJ research shows.

CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney counts down the 10 countries where the
press is most tightly restricted. How do leaders in these nations silence the
media? And which country is the worst of all? (4:03)

Read CPJ's report on the 10 Most Censored countries for more detail
on how censorship works, and which countries were the runners-up.

New York, March 15, 2012--The Committee to Protect
Journalists is outraged by the illegal foreign travel ban on at least four independent
journalists in Belarus, and calls on the government of Aleksandr Lukashenko to
immediately restore their freedom of movement.